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Follow-up, Feedback and Customer Service – The Changing Landscape

A recent news made me choose the topic for today. The news was that via Twitter, a customer asked a taxi service, Ola Cabs, to be able to chose the religion of the driver. Ola Cabs rightly replied on Twitter saying that they do not discriminate against their drivers on the basis of their religion. This response gained very high visibility in the Twitter world and received lot of positive appreciation.

This exchange shows how alert the companies are becoming about how they respond to the customer and undertake all efforts to make sure the company stands for its values and reputation.

Follow-up is a big term in the Business Development world. In order to expand your business, generate sales or provide superior customer service, you have to follow-up on the initial meet-up or interaction.

Social media is now enabling that follow-up faster than ever. I am now wondering how companies responded to such customer queries before social media. I am assuming it must be via the telephone. However, no telephone conversations ever made the news like the Twitter conversation mentioned above.

Companies are taking the social media conversation further in the Customer Service space. In 2013, Travel and Leisure’s “Global World’s Best” awards survey revealed that in order to provide a winning service , 44% of General Managers at the top 16 hotels in each region worldwide admit to using Google and Facebook to research guests before check-in.

Companies resorting to Social Media as a follow-up, feedback and customer service platform is becoming a norm now and my guess is that we would be seeing it happen more and more.